Edinburgh Fringe Review: Zhuangzi’s Dream

A masterclass in transitional storytelling, Zhuangzi’s Dream is a performance you don’t want to miss, says Megan Amato. 

★★★★★

Before suspicious spouses were testing their loved ones’ loyalty with catfishing fake profiles, there was Zhuang Zhou, a 4th-century Daoist philosopher who tested his wife’s vows by faking his death and magically becoming his rival to lure her.

Many may know of Zhuang Zhou’s butterfly dream, an existential parable pondering whether he was dreaming that he was a butterfly or if the butterfly was dreaming that he was Zhuang Zhou.

Perhaps less known is Feng Menglong’s Stories to Caution the World, where in “Zhuang Zhou Drums on a Bowl and Attains the Great Dao”, our philosopher comes across a young widow fanning her husband’s grave to dry the soil so she may quickly remarry. At first, he is amused, but he quickly descends into obsession and paranoia about his own wife’s vow to remain loyal. He fakes his death with sorcery and becomes his romantic rival to repeatedly test her.

The Beijing Central Academy of Drama’s Zhuangzi’s Dream utilises intricate puppetry, shadow puppetry, and operatic elements and tropes with effective lighting and music to blend Feng Menglong’s cautionary tale with Zhuang Zhou’s original allegories about identity, illusion and freedom.

Performed in Mandarin with English surtitles, my eyes loathed to linger away from the stage for too long as each second was layered with textural details that brought this story to life. All five of the actors did a phenomenal job delivering poetic and philosophical prose with stylistic vocalisation that carried every emotional shift.

The stage designer and light designer outdid themselves, creating a dymanic set that was simple and yet completely transformed the stage as the light and mood changed.

The costumes with their 2D embellishments were an inspired touch, creating a connection between the actors and their shift to shadow puppetry that added to the dreamlike feel.

Said puppetry, both shadow and papier-mâché (though a French word, the craft has Chinese origins), was ethereal and mesmerising in its fine details.

Zhuangzi’s Dream is an atmospheric and meticulously directed performance that manages to keep its message at heart on a very stylish set. Enthralling from start to finish, you won’t want to miss it on its last two days of its run.

Zhuangzi’s Dream runs until 11 August at C Aurora – Main House.